Conventional automatic vending machines, money changing machines, and service equipment, etc., have been equipped with coin processing devices that sort and hold inserted coins by denomination and pay out sorted and held coins as change.
FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional coin processing device 1.
The coin processing device 1 comprises the following two main constituting elements.
The first constituting element comprises coin sorting means 3 that sorts inserted coins by genuine and counterfeit and then the genuine coins by denomination. The coin sorting means 3 is mounted in the upper part of a device body 2 having a roughly H-shaped cross-section and constituting the frame of the coin processing device 1 in such manner that it can be freely mounted and removed.
The second constituting element comprises coin dispensing means 9 that stores the sorted genuine coins by denomination and that sorts and pays out the stored genuine coins according to the change amount. The coin dispensing means 9 is located in the lower portion of the device body 2, and comprises four coin tubes 5, 6, 7, and 8 having different diameters except in part, which are lined up in a row.
These four coin tubes 5, 6, 7, and 8 are loaded inside the device body 2 so that they can be freely loaded and unloaded. Of these four, coin tubes 5, 6 and 7 are positioned directly below the coin sorting means 3 when they are loaded into the device body 2. The coin tube 8, is a supplemental tube wherein coins that are used with particularly high frequency are stored beforehand, the diameter of which is set to be the same as that of the coin tube 6.
Reference number 10 in FIG. 3 is a control switch group (inventory switch group) for giving directions such as a payment direction when forcing the payment of certain denominations of the coins stored in the coin dispensing means 9 for each denomination. The control switch group 10 is positioned inside a switch box 11 provided at the upper right of the device body 2.
By means of such a coin processing device 1, coins first pass through a coin insertion hopper 12 into the coin sorting means 3 where they are sorted according to genuine and counterfeit and according to the denomination of the genuine coins. Of these coins, the genuine coins are sorted and stored in the coin tubes 5, 6 and 7 constituting the coin dispensing means 9.
When the denominations of the change are specified, the coins stored in the coin tubes 5, 6, 7 and 8 are selected and paid out according to the change amount.
The conventional coin processing device 1 described above, however, is loaded in the limited space inside an automatic vending machine or other equipment. Therefore, the overall size thereof is strictly specified beforehand. In particular, as indicated in the enlarged perspective cross-sectional view of the coin tubes 5, 6, 7 and 8 constituting the coin dispensing means 9 and device body 2 in FIG. 4, the width L of the device body 2 is strictly specified.
When, on the other hand, the coin processing device 1 described above is used in countries wherein different numbers of coin denominations having different diameters are used, it becomes particularly necessary to employ a larger number of the coin tubes that are lined up to constitute the coin dispensing means 9.
However, the coin tubes 5, 6, 7 and 8 that are lined up together to constitute the conventional coin dispensing means 9 are arranged in a configuration wherein the line A that connects the axial centers a, b, c and d of the coin tubes 5, 6, 7 and 8, forms a straight line, as depicted in the top view in FIG. 5. Therefore, when another coin tube 11 having a still different diameter is lined up so that the line B that connects the axial centers a, b, c, d and e forms a straight line, the overall width L1 of the coin tubes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 will be larger than the width L of the device body 2 (i.e. L1&gt;L). Therefore, the coin tubes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 cannot be accommodated inside the device body 2. This presents a problem.
Reference number 12 in FIGS. 4 to 6 is a control board positioned on the back side of the coin tubes 5, 6, 7 and 8 inside the device body 2. On the control board 12 are mounted not only electronic components for controlling the drives of various kinds of electronic equipment (such as solenoid plungers, etc., for driving coin sorting levers) located inside either the coin sorting means 3 or coin dispensing means 9, as described above, but also, as depicted in FIGS. 5 and 6, empty sensors 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 for detecting whether or not coins are presently stored in the coin tubes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11.
These empty sensors 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 comprise electromagnetic coil proximity switches that detect whether or not any coins are being held in the coin tubes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 by detecting changes in inductance. However, the distances D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5 between the inner walls of the coin tubes 5, 6, 7, 8 and 11 and the corresponding empty sensors 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, respectively, differ from one another. Therefore, there is a danger of variation developing in the sensitivities with which the presence of coins in the coin tubes is detected by the corresponding empty sensors 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, if no sensitivity adjustments are made. In order to compensate for this, sensitivity adjustments are made beforehand so that the sensitivities with which the presence of coins is detected by the empty sensors 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 are equalized.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a coin processing device wherein many coin tubes can be accommodated within a specific width.